7am exclusive: First Terminal 5 ‘The First Wing’ pictures as it officially opens

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• Pyeinthesky says:

  4 Apr4 April 08:28

  [smug]Looks nice, and timing couldn’t be better for me as I’m about to get LTG (and lose CCRC next year)[smug]

• Paul says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:02

  The latest edition of Departures magazine, (the Amex platium mag) has a small article on First and business improvements by some airlines. SQ have new F seats, QR have new lounges in Paris and new J class seat. BA have a dimly lit corridor!
  BA anti family policies are well known and ingrained. It stems from staff not being allowed to take kids in F even if they are the CEO. This latest change is a typical BA enhancement downgrading a service whilst claiming it’s an improvement. For some it is but the reality is that BA have long wanted to get rid of gold card families from F check in and now they have done so. This is to save having to resource the area properly at peak family travel times.
  Whilst the usual BA supporters will trumpet this new development it is 9 years too late and a sticking plaster on an otherwise poor product.

  • Lady London says:

    4 Apr4 April 09:13

    So @Paul, other than that you’re quite impressed then?
    🙂

  • Yuff says:

    4 Apr4 April 11:16

    Have to say we’ve taken kids, in F, over the last 5 years and the staff have been extremely friendly towards the children, even letting them into the cockpit, at JFK, and sitting in the Captain’s seat.

  • Catalan says:

    4 Apr4 April 12:38

    Moan, moan, moan. Come on, it’s better than nothing.

    • Catalan says:

      4 Apr4 April 12:39

      @Paul

    • Leo says:

      4 Apr4 April 13:23

      +1

• Rob says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:29

  At the launch event, so presumably all the time. I imagine they think it will give naughty people ideas.

• David says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:39

  Presumably a side effect of this opening is that it should make T5 standard fast track a bit quicker due to fewer people using it?

  • Alex W says:

    4 Apr4 April 09:43

    Going on above comments, it could get worse if there are a lot of families at the same time…

    • AndyR says:

      4 Apr4 April 12:37

      But wouldn’t they have been using the same fast track previously anyway?

• Adrian says:

  4 Apr4 April 10:18

  This makes the T3 first experience even worse (if that’s possible). The plastic sign with a check in agent behind it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, but then again this is BA!

  • krys_k says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:34

    I like T3 from a Club Europe perspective. Whenever I’ve used it, and that’s often for flights to Warsaw, check in is very quick as is fast track. I like the lounge too. Yes, it’s small, but in my experience, not too busy (maybe that’s the timing of my flights).

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      4 Apr4 April 13:06

      Remember you don’t have to use the BA lounge when flying from T3, there’s other oneworld lounges you can use and the Cathy Pacific lounge beats them all.

• Hingeless says:

  4 Apr4 April 10:35

  BA are so late to the game with this, virgin Australia have had this at Sydney for domestic flights for a number of years, it’s kerbside straight to lounge although you can’t check luggage in.

  Singapore have it although you have to walk across the corridor of shops

  And various other airlines/airports have similar

  Is is odd that you still have to walk further to the concord lounge than the f lounge

• krys_k says:

  4 Apr4 April 11:34

  Very quick to get through. Just before entering, my fiancee and I were kind of stopped to confirm whether we are in fact traveling first (we always travel with backpacks that are beaten up since they’ve seen the world). Reminded me of Pretty Woman. And then at the x-ray machine they asked my fiancee to take off her gold bracelet (it’s plastic) 🙂

• Nick says:

  4 Apr4 April 11:55

  This is a small point, but I think these types of places should be all about the details…

  Why didn’t they change the flooring? Of course the answer is ‘the cost’, but the floor just looks the same as the rest of the terminal and the floor makes up most of what you can see in both pictures in this article.

  If this was somewhere like Dubai, they probably would have done it, but I suppose we live in ‘that’ll do’ Britain!

  • Rob says:

    4 Apr4 April 12:36

    To be fair, as you will see in my review soon, the First and Business Class check-in terminal at Dubai – because they have so many premium passengers – it basically just like the check-in area of a normal mid-size airport! Not hugely premium at all.

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